Building Confidence Through Evidence

Archive for the tag “Cults”

Have you heard of Eastern Lightning? If not, hang on because it’s quite a story.

Eastern Lightning is also known as the Church of the Almighty God, Church of the True God, Church of the Everlasting Fountain, and Real God and it’s a growing *cult in mainland China, Hong Kong, Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Australia, Europe, Canada and the United States.

*Cult – “a small religious group that is not part of a larger and more accepted religion and that has beliefs regarded by many people as extreme or dangerous” (Merriam-Webster)

Even though Eastern Lightning is believed by some to have more than a million members in mainland China, it is small in comparison with China’s population of about 1.4 billion people. (Some estimates are less than 100,000 adherents in China)

EL (as it is sometimes referred) is a relatively new cult and uses deception, sex and violence to grow bigger and flex its muscles on the back of a middle-aged Chinese woman that church members believe is the ‘Almighty God’ on earth.

Like this:

The word “error” meant little to me when I was an atheist. An error was just a mistake that could be corrected if necessary. However, the word “error” means far more than just making a simple mistake.

First, here are several English dictionary definitions of the word:

“an act or condition of ignorant or imprudent deviation from a code of behavior” (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary)

“An act, assertion, or belief that unintentionally deviates from what is correct, right, or true”

“The condition of having incorrect or false knowledge” (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language)

“belief in something untrue; the holding of mistaken opinions” (Dictionary.com)

“an incorrect belief or wrong judgment” (Collins English Dictionary)

I find this one interesting. It’s from the Webster 1828 Dictionary and includes the Latin word and meaning.

“ER’ROR, n. [L. error, from erro, to wander.] A wandering or deviation from the truth; a mistake in judgment, by which men assent to or believe what is not true. Error may be voluntary, or involuntary. Voluntary, when men neglect or pervert the proper means to inform the mind; involuntary, when the means of judging correctly are not in their power. An error committed through carelessness or haste is a blunder.”

The word error took on a new meaning when I became a Christian. I was reminded of that recently when someone asked me a question about something they heard on a religious radio program. Interestingly enough, that program is what started me on the path of an apologetics ministry more than 40 years ago.